A modern fairystory

One day I will have to explain to my grandchildren about what has happened over the last week. To make it easier I wrote a fairy story...

Once upon a time there were 6 kingdoms.

Each of them had suffered in greatly in fighting each other in two wars, which had resulted in massive destruction and a great loss of life.

So they all got together and decided that they needed to find a way to make sure that they would never fight wars again. They also decided that the best way to rebuild their shattered kingdoms was if they cooperated and worked together . 

They decided that if they removed all the barriers that stopped each kingdom from selling to each other, they would all have too much to lose by fighting each other. then everyone would be friendlier (although shouting at each other would still be allowed as long as they made up with each other later).

To make sure everyone played by the rules, they would set up a special council to help ensure that the kingdoms made laws that respected each other wishes. To do this they decided that it was important that 4 things would be allowed to pass between each kingdom without anyone being able to stop them. These were, people, goods, money and things that people do for other people.

Now this was a pretty big thing because no one had ever tried anything like this before.  This was because kings generally did not like to give up their rights to control things (otherwise what would be the point of being a king?). However these kings were wise and realised that it was better to lose a little control, if the end result was prosperity for everyone.

So they all agreed and many were surprised to find that just talking and trading actually worked very well and the 6 kingdoms prospered. In fact it worked so well, other kingdoms got jealous because they were not doing as well and begged to also join.

Now one of these other kingdoms was especially jealous. Not only because the other 6 were doing so well, but because they were doing it without them. They considered themselves much better than all the other kingdoms, because they once, a long time ago, owned most of the world and thought that the other kingdoms owed a lot of thanks because they had won the two great wars (although it had to be said, with a lot of help  help from other kingdoms, which the people in this kingdom sometimes forgot). 

Unfortunately this kingdom, was no longer as rich or prosperous as it had been. It did not want to, but in the end  it reluctantly asked to join the other kingdoms. At first the other 6 kingdoms said no, but eventually they let it, because it asked so nicely.

So now there were 9 kingdoms. The kingdoms chose a new flag and decided to call themselves the union kingdom.

Generally everyone was pretty happy in the union, but sometimes when you do big complex things, not everything can be perfect.

The leaders of the kingdoms realised very quickly that for this union to work they couldn’t let each government decide which rule they liked or disliked.  So they needed some sort of council where all the kingdoms could come together and decide what to do. Then the kingdoms would ask representatives of all the ordinary people in all the kingdoms to agree. For the really big decisions the kings would take the decisions back to be agreed with his own ministers. There was also a group of wise men, who would finally decide who was right when one kingdom disagreed with another.

In this way, they hoped that all kingdoms would have a fair say in the decisions.

Some kings and their ministers worried that this meant they had less power, and didn't like that, even though it only involved the laws that affected all the kingdoms, not the kingdoms individual laws (although that turns out to be a surprising lot, because things that you do in your kingdom often effects the others around you).

However the king had lots of powers left because it did not affect the laws they made in their own kingdom,but it didn't stop some kings complaining about it. (There was another set of wise men that stopped kingdoms mistreating their own citizens, but that has nothing to do with this story, although many think it does). Some kings also complained about how much gold they had to pay to the union to allow it to keep working (and forgetting how much they got back in return and how much the union benefited the people)

Still things went very well in the kingdoms. They had no more wars and the rich kingdoms helped the poor kingdoms, allowing them to grow and be happy. The poor kingdoms in turn helped the rich kingdoms by sending people to do many of the jobs that people in the rich kingdom didn't want to do.  The people in the kingdoms sold more to each other, got richer and got to know each other and got friendlier. 

Some of the kings however thought that although the union was good, they could do even better.

They noticed that although people could go and live in any kingdom they liked, they still had to get past border guards. Also when they got there, they had to change their gold into groats, which made things in other kingdoms more expensive. They thought that if they got rid of these things, things would get even better.

So some of the kings decided to do away with borders and make everyone in all the kingdoms use the same money. 

However the people in the kingdom which had asked to join so nicely, didn’t like this very much.

For one they thought their money was much better than the money in any of the other kingdoms. Also they had a magic moat around there kingdom, which they thought had kept them safe in times of trouble. It also meant they did not live right next to the people in the union and therefore did not trust them very much.

However most of the the other kings went ahead and got rid of the borders (apart from the kingdom with the magic moat) and the changed all the money (apart from the kingdom where they liked their own money). 

It was also decided to let more kingdoms join. This worried some kings, because they saw that the people in these kingdoms were very poor and they were worried in case they all moved to the rich kingdoms and there would not enough money to go around (this did not really happen, because people generally like to stay where they are, but people do worry about these things).  However some of the wiser kings realised that by letting poor kingdoms join, eventually they would become richer,  and then they would become good neighbors.

However then a terrible thing then happened. Many of the kingdom’s money lenders found that the money they had been lending to build castles around the world had been lost and they were broke. This meant that that the kingdoms had no money to spend. Worse,  some of the kingdoms had not told the entire truth about how rich they were and found they were desperately short of  money. Some of the rich kingdoms had to lend them money, but some of the other kingdoms worried that they might need to lend money too.

This meant that the kingdoms in the union had far less money and many people became poor. Many blamed the money lenders for being stupid, but some were just angry because it seemed that only some of the people in the kingdoms got poor, while a few got richer (especially the money lenders)

In the kingdom with the magic moat, some poor people also noticed that their were people from the other kingdoms here and began wondering whether that was the real reason they were now poor.

At the same time the magic moat kingdom was  fighting some wars a long way away. These wars  spread to other kingdoms and many of the people living there tried to get to safety. Because the union was close and much safer, they tried to escape there. This scared the magic moat kingdom very much. While they did not much like the people in the union much, they were  afraid of people from outside the union.

There was one person in the magic moat kingdom who definitely did not like these other people. In fact he did not like any people much  who came from outside magic moat kingdom. He used to stand up and shout how terrible the union was, how much it cost, and how they had  let all these awful people in because of the rules of the union. For a long time most people ignored him, but he kept going on and on. However after the people became poor, more people started listening to him and wondered whether he had a point after all.

Even some of the kings own ministers started listening and some of the scroll makers realised that if they wrote things that scared people, they would sell a lot more scrolls (Sometime children, people would rather be scared than listen to reason)

It got so bad that the king of the magic moat kingdom decided he had to do something about it.

Since the union had outlawed executions, he couldn’t kill his ministers and lock up the scroll makers(although he wished he could),. Instead he decided that he would ask all the people in the magic moat kingdom whether they still wished to be in the union. He reasoned that they would all say "yes" because the benefits of staying in the kingdom was so obvious for all to see. So the king lined up all the wisest men in the kingdom, who told the people how bad things would become if they left the union. He then got all the world’s wisest leaders to do the same.

However, the king’s court jester and the king’s dwarf decided to say the kingdom should leave the union. (Some say they said this, not because they really believed it, but because the jester secretly wanted to be king). 

The people listened to the wise men. However some remembered that some of the wise men had not warned them about the dangers of money lending. Anyway the court jester and the dwarf said the wise men were only saying these things because the king had asked them too, so they could not be trusted.

Then the court jester spoke....

He said look how poor we are and look how much money we give to the union. If we come out the union, we could give all the money to the poor and the hospitals (even though there wasn’t as much money as the jester said there was). 

He said look at all these people coming from other kingdoms and taking away your jobs. If we leave we can stop them (even though the people coming in did a lot of the jobs the people in the kingdom couldn't or wouldn't do). 

He said that we are far better than any of the other kingdoms. Why do we need the union anymore. The only thing stopping us from being great again is the other kingdoms and their silly rules. If we leave they will beg us to keep us trading with them, and if they don’t we will just find someone else to trade with (although no one could think why the union would want to do this or who these other kingdoms were).

The people listened to the jester, and although many did not agree with him, many started murmuring that perhaps he had a point (Unfortunately you will find, children,  that sometimes people do not like to listen to wise people if they tell them things that they do not want to hear, but will listen to fools who tell them things they like)

And some of the people indeed thought, yes, why give money to all these other kingdoms when we need it (although it actually wasn’t that much and the kingdom got lots in return). 

And some of the people indeed thought, yes, there are a lot of people from elsewhere. Maybe that is the reason the schools are full and the hospitals are crumbling (although it could also because the our king refuses to spend any money on us)

And some of the people indeed  thought, yes before we joined the union, we were great. If we leave we can be great again (forgetting that when they joined they were doing quite badly)

and they joined with some other people. These people had made their mind up a long time ago because they had always hated the union.

Some hated it because it seemed the world was changing too fast and leaving them behind. They thought if they left the union, things would magically go back to the way things were when they were children.

Some hated it because they did not want any decisions being made outside the kingdom, even ones that made the kingdom better. They did not trust the other kings of the other kingdoms because they did speak or look like they did.

Some hated it just because they wanted to rage against the world since they felt the world had left them behind. 

And some just hated it because, well , they just hated people from other kingdoms and that is all there is to it

And when the vote came, all the money returners, hospital funders, great kingdomers, other place decisioners ,world moving too fasters, king protesters and other people haters, ignored the wise men and  decided that the kingdom should stop being part of the union (It also has to be said that almost as many people said they wanted to stay, but these people were told to shut up and be quiet, because they had lost.)

(Some people voted leave to send a message to their king that they did not like him very much. These people did not realise that they would actually have to leave the union. Some people, children,  can be very silly )

The king and all the wise men were shocked. So much so the king decided he had no option but to stop being king and go away.. 

You would have thought that the Court Jester and the kings dwarf would now be very happy now, but you would be wrong.

They had never really thought they would win, but they had and with the king gone, they realised that people would expect them to keep all their promises, even the ones  that were not true(which was most of them). Also they began to wonder whether the wise men had been right after all and worried that the people would blame them when they found out they had been tricked.

The people of the kingdom were also shocked ( even some of those who voted to leave) and they asked the jester and the dwarf what they planed to do now?. The Jester and the dwarf did not know because they never thought this day would happen so they had made no plans. This scared people even more.

And all the merchants in the kingdom  asked them to explain how they were going to sell all their goods, if the union no longer has to allow them in and they worried that the country would become very poor, like the wise men had said.

And some of the places in the magic vote kingdom who had voted not to leave, told the ministers of the magic moat kingdom that they did not want to leave and would prefer to stay even if it meant the would no longer be part of the magic moat kingdom.

The people in the union also were very sad to see the magic moat kingdom wanted to leave and said they wish they could still be friends, but there was nothing they would do if the magic moat kingdom wanted to go.

People were scared and looked for a new king to tell them what they should do. Everyone thought the court jester should do it because it was his words that had caused the problem.Unfortunately the kings dwarf did not like the idea of the jester being king, so stabbed him in the back to stop him (Which only goes to show that jesters are not tolerated when they stop being funny)

So children, what do you think happened next to the union and the magic moat kingdom?

Well I would like to tell you that the magic moat kingdom chose a wise leader and became even greater, with all its people happy and prosperous, even those who had not wanted to leave. The union decided the magic moat kingdom was indeed so important that they would make a special case for the them and would let them have all the privileges of being in the union with non of the responsibilities or paying any gold or let any other people in like the other kingdoms did, and they all lived happily ever after.

Alas, children I cannot, because sometimes happy endings only happen in fairy stories....